Stefan He QIN, owner of two cryptocurrency investment funds, was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment. Qin was charged with defrauding over 100 investors in one of his investment funds. To cover up his fraudulent dealings, he attempted to transfer funds from the second investment fund to pay back investors. He pleaded guilty to all charges levied against him in February 2021 and is now sentenced to 71/2 years in prison.
Stefan He QIN is a 24-year-old Australian National who runs two investment funds, Virgil Sigma and VQR, both located in New York. He started both companies in 2017. The mode of operation for Virgil Sigma outlined by QIN was to earn profits through arbitrage opportunities in the crypto market, specifically leveraging on the price differences across different exchanges worldwide. However, the 24-year-old founder diverted the majority of the funds, $90 million from Virgil Sigma to personal expenses, investment in non-crypto related assets, and investment in crypto assets that had no relation with the previously outlined mode of operation of the company. QIN regularly lied to investors about the value and status of their investments by sending memos that included fabricated numbers.
In 2020, QIN faced issues in meeting redemption requests from investors in Virgil Sigma. To prevent the risk of being exposed, he attempted to steal investor’s capital from VQR, his second company, by closing out all investors’ trading positions. Luckily he was exposed before he could successfully tamper with investors’ fund in VQR. However, he has successfully duped over 100 investors of their $90 million cumulative investments.
In conclusion, it is just another day in the crypto community and just like every other industry; it has its ups and downs. We advise all crypto investors to always DYOR and stay vigilant.